Swansea were absolute garbage. They played like a Championship side in an away cup tie. We failed to win because Jelavic is the new Saha, and we got lulled into playing the first hour at their pedestrian, purposeless pace. Benitez said after the midweek LC semi that 9 times out of 10 Chelsea would have beaten Swansea on the play on the night. I'd say the same about that match today. We ran the midfield, were totally untroubled at the back, had the beating of them in the air and had Coleman looking like he could rip them apart if given the ball more. Why we created so few clear chances is therefore something of a mystery.

I thought we played OK but failed to up the tempo sufficiently. Some of our football was again top draw. The ability of Osman, Pienaar and Baines to hold the ball and work it in tight situations is a pleasure to behold at times. But we urgently need Jelavic to find his shooting boots or even the Europa Cup will be a long shot.

I'm also detecting a gradual withdrawal of Moyes's conversion to attacking play. We're getting fewer players up to support Jelavic and crowd into the box. Moyes has always gone defensive the closer we've come to achieving something. Let's hope he's not going the same way again. To have any chance of 4th, at some point we've got to put a run of wins together. Unfortunately its now 3 years since Moyes has done this in the League so the signs are not good. Failing that we've got to win one or two of the 6 pointers at Anfield, Arsenal and Spurs. To

Jelavic the new Saha? He is far better than that lazy twat. Jelavic spent quite a lot of time out on the right due to Vic disappearing to wherever he liked in the game.

Couple of things about that match highlight what frustrates me most about us at the moment

I wish Moyes would play Fellaini deeper from the start of the Match as he doesn't have the guile to make killer passes in and around the area. Osman would be much better off in that position IMO.

Also we were so unablanced with all our attacks coming down the left Swansea knew exactly what was going to happen. Anichebe was drifting inside and Coleman had no-one to play off. Naismith the comes on and doesn't manage to link up with Coleman or do anything himself. At least when Anichebe was on he would be able to do someting when he came inside

Jelavic, despite getting into some good positions early on and being unlucky not to score was looking a bit like a rag doll and you could see as the game went on he was less likely to score. I would have taken him off and kept Anichebe on

No idea why you would have wanted Fellaini playing deeper from the start. Moving him back severely hindered us going forward and we lacked a good focal point. I understand Moyes was trying to switch things up a bit, but we created nothing without him up there from what I can remember.

He was a constant danger when up top and most of our best chances came from him either winning headers or gaining control of the ball high up the pitch.

Swansea were absolute garbage. They played like a Championship side in an away cup tie. We failed to win because Jelavic is the new Saha, and we got lulled into playing the first hour at their pedestrian, purposeless pace. Benitez said after the midweek LC semi that 9 times out of 10 Chelsea would have beaten Swansea on the play on the night. I'd say the same about that match today. We ran the midfield, were totally untroubled at the back, had the beating of them in the air and had Coleman looking like he could rip them apart if given the ball more. Why we created so few clear chances is therefore something of a mystery.

I thought we played OK but failed to up the tempo sufficiently. Some of our football was again top draw. The ability of Osman, Pienaar and Baines to hold the ball and work it in tight situations is a pleasure to behold at times. But we urgently need Jelavic to find his shooting boots or even the Europa Cup will be a long shot.

I'm also detecting a gradual withdrawal of Moyes's conversion to attacking play. We're getting fewer players up to support Jelavic and crowd into the box. Moyes has always gone defensive the closer we've come to achieving something. Let's hope he's not going the same way again. To have any chance of 4th, at some point we've got to put a run of wins together. Unfortunately its now 3 years since Moyes has done this in the League so the signs are not good. Failing that we've got to win one or two of the 6 pointers at Anfield, Arsenal and Spurs. To

I don't understand how you think we are becoming less attack minded after one game. Talk about knee-jerk.

Before today we had scored in what, 19 straight games? That's absolutely ridiculous. And we created chances today as well, but they defended very deep and never committed enough men forward to worry about getting picked off on the break.

Jelavic looked very good in the first half, but like many players struggled in the second. He is not the new Saha, that spin in the first half was a great piece of forward play and he was mixing it up well by showing for the ball and running the channels on occasion.

We struggled to create clear-cut chances mostly because our delivery today was poor and our finishing was abysmal. Fellaini, Osman, and Jagielka all had great chances and Anichebe and Jelavic (twice) nearly scored as well.

Swansea were absolute garbage. They played like a Championship side in an away cup tie. We failed to win because Jelavic is the new Saha, and we got lulled into playing the first hour at their pedestrian, purposeless pace. Benitez said after the midweek LC semi that 9 times out of 10 Chelsea would have beaten Swansea on the play on the night. I'd say the same about that match today. We ran the midfield, were totally untroubled at the back, had the beating of them in the air and had Coleman looking like he could rip them apart if given the ball more. Why we created so few clear chances is therefore something of a mystery.

I thought we played OK but failed to up the tempo sufficiently. Some of our football was again top draw. The ability of Osman, Pienaar and Baines to hold the ball and work it in tight situations is a pleasure to behold at times. But we urgently need Jelavic to find his shooting boots or even the Europa Cup will be a long shot.

I'm also detecting a gradual withdrawal of Moyes's conversion to attacking play. We're getting fewer players up to support Jelavic and crowd into the box. Moyes has always gone defensive the closer we've come to achieving something. Let's hope he's not going the same way again. To have any chance of 4th, at some point we've got to put a run of wins together. Unfortunately its now 3 years since Moyes has done this in the League so the signs are not good. Failing that we've got to win one or two of the 6 pointers at Anfield, Arsenal and Spurs. To

Bizzare post that.

We're shite one minute, great the next, then shite, then great? Ran the midfield, failed to up the tempo, then we we were OK, then we were "top draw" Amazing?

I don't understand how you think we are becoming less attack minded after one game. Talk about knee-jerk.

Before today we had scored in what, 19 straight games? That's absolutely ridiculous. And we created chances today as well, but they defended very deep and never committed enough men forward to worry about getting picked off on the break.

Jelavic looked very good in the first half, but like many players struggled in the second. He is not the new Saha, that spin in the first half was a great piece of forward play and he was mixing it up well by showing for the ball and running the channels on occasion.

We struggled to create clear-cut chances mostly because our delivery today was poor and our finishing was abysmal. Fellaini, Osman, and Jagielka all had great chances and Anichebe and Jelavic (twice) nearly scored as well.

This.

It's also hard to create clear chances when the opposition has so many men behind the ball.

As you say this wouldn't have been too much of an issue if we'd put away some of the presentable ones that we did create; especially the headers from Ossie, Distin and Jags.

It's also hard to create clear chances when the opposition has so many men behind the ball.

As you say this wouldn't have been too much of an issue if we'd put away some of the presentable ones that we did create; especially the headers from Ossie, Distin and Jags.

Agree, what we really lacked was the final killer ball.Not for the first time this season either.If we don't amend this, we'll have a hard time keeping West Brom off our backs, instead of chasing Chelsea.

We seemed to be causing most problems in the air yesterday.70 mins in we should have got Vellios on for Neville and bombarded Swansea with long balls for Felli, Vic and Vellios to knock down for Osman and Jelavic!

Swansea arent the type of team that you can easily play through as they are very good at the possession game themselves. You need to bully them a bit

Logged

You think Lou Bega knocked it out of the park with Mambo number 1?!No but he kept at it!

Its bad enough to have that cunt nevill at our club but to get in the way of letting coleman shoot and score says it all the sooner he fucks off the better

Terrific analysis, look forward to your full column in the Guardian tomorrow.

Seriously though, that one occasion aside, Neville was the main reason Coleman had the space in the first place - kept tucking in on the right as cover, and at the same time Anichebe kept pulling their left back central. It's similar to how Baines is afforded space to bomb on by Pienaar and Osman (which didn't work yesterday because they specifically closed it down).